


We Keep This Love In A Photograph

by ratonnhhaketon



Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout 4, Video Games - Fandom
Genre: Angst, Blink and Miss It Romance, Prewar Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-09
Updated: 2018-09-09
Packaged: 2019-07-10 03:56:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 789
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15941288
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ratonnhhaketon/pseuds/ratonnhhaketon
Summary: After waking up 200 years into the future and seeing the world turned to shreads, Arden Storm revists her home in search of a sign from her past life.





	We Keep This Love In A Photograph

**Author's Note:**

> This has been sitting in my drafts for (legitimately) years. I’ve been wanting to post this for a while but never got around to it until now. The writing isn’t the best but it’s still good enough to post. Enjoy!

Arden turned away from Codsworth and towards the remains of her old home. “Is.. is the safe still intact? The one in our bedroom?” Her voice quivered.

“I do not know for sure, but I imagine it has survived.”

She slowly took a step. Her legs felt like jelly and time was slowed almost to a stop. It seemed like another 200 years had passed as she walked the remains of her house. She stopped just outside of the last room on the left. A broken radio and mostly ruined bed frame were the only things that remained. Arden crossed the room and crouched, preparing herself to lift up the destroyed wooden object. She did her best to move it over until a rusty metal square appeared on the ground. “Thank god,” was all she could manage to say. The safe looked mostly intact. A few bits of rust and chipping of green paint that matched the old carpet seemed to be the only damage. She put her hand on the lock and reset the dial back to zero. Her fingers twisted the metal knob a few times around to find the numbers: 7, 11, 18. The two most important days of her life, both in July. July 11, 2073, the anniversary of Nate and her wedding. July 18, 2077, the day Shaun was born. The code was engraved into her brain, and sometimes she believed she knew it better than her own birthday or even her name.

The safe opened with a metal on metal clink and Arden threw open the door as fast as possible. There were only a few things in the safe but all of them were important to her.

She first pulled out a picture. It was of Nate, who was holding newborn Shaun, and herself on the day they brought their son home. It was the day they truly accepted they were parents.

The second item of importance was a gun. A hand carved, dark stained sniper rifle; the exact same gun Nate had used in the war.

She ran her thumb over the engraving on the butt of the gun. “Cpt. N. Storm.” It was carved with a knife, the letters rough and sharp. She remembered staying up late one night long after her husband had retired to bed. She sat at the kitchen counter with a paring knife in hand and hand carved every letter into the wood. It was a small detail, but once Nate noticed it one night on the battlefield, he couldn’t help but smile. He would never admit he cried from the thought of his wife at home, but Arden knew he secretly did from the way his eyes glazed over when he mentioned it.

After putting the gun next to her on the floor she reached into the safe one final time to pull out the last item. A long, metal chain appeared with two dog tags on them; yet another memory from Nate’s time at war. The first was from his first deployment when the two lovebirds were dating, and the other was after the two had gotten married.

Arden could not help the tears that slipped down her face as she ran her finger over the tags. She clutched the necklace to her chest and sobbed, letting out everything she had been holding in since waking up.

She cried not only for her husband, but for the man she had loved since he first walked into the diner she worked at one Saturday afternoon. The same man who asked her out for milkshakes on a napkin and stayed until the end of her shift the following week to take her out dancing. The same man who she sent off to war twice, not even knowing if she would see him again. The same man who was the father of her child, a child who was kidnapped by the man who killed her husband.

“Why couldn’t it have been me?” She thought aloud through the tears. Why couldn’t she had been the one with Shaun? The one to give up their life? Nate would know what to do. Nate would know where to start in this crazy search for their son. All that she needed at this moment was gone and she didn’t know what to do or feel.

Arden glanced back down at the gun by her feet and wiped her eyes. “I’ll find him, honey. I’ll get our son back. And I’ll kill anyone who gets in the way of that.” She picked up the gun, dog tags and photograph and walked out of the room.

She knew that wherever Nate was he was smiling down, proud as could be of his wife.


End file.
